Python: reduce some column in TXT by regexp

Question

Dear all,
I try to read TXT file, change the lines and write a result in a new TXT file
but the delimiter is ""

how I could find \t""\t""\t""\t and replace with \t""\t

with open( dat, "r", encoding="ANSI" ) as infile:
with open( outdat, 'w' ) as outfile:
line=infile.readline()
cnt=1
while line:
print( "Line {}: {}".format( cnt, line.strip() ) )
line=infile.readline()
# ----------------------------------
# here I try to find and replace, but do not working
# re.findall(r"^\d",line):
# ----------------------------------
cnt+=1
outfile.write(line)
outfile.close()
infile.close()

My sourse like that:
"" "" "" "" "" "" "Interval: 01/01/17 00:00:00 - 31/01/17 23:59:59" "" "" "" "" ""
"" "" "" "" "" "Trunk: 1" "" "" "" "" "" ""
"End date/time" "" "Duration" "Phone number" "Ext." "" "" "Pin" "Pulses" "Raw charge" "Charge" "Type"
"" "Trunk group: 1" "" "" "" "" "" "" "" "" "" ""
"" "Circuit: 1" "" "" "" "" "" "" "" "" "" ""
"03/01/17 11:04:00" "" "49s" "052648227" "331" "" "" "" "0" "$0.1222" "$0.1467" "7"
"03/01/17 16:33:00" "" "5m,7s" "0899331694#" "339" "" "" "" "0" "$1.0643" "$1.2771" "7"

Answer 1

That's a tab-delimited file. The inclusion of "" where they aren't necessary is a safe (I guess) -- but unfortunate mixing -- of comma- and tab-separated-values (mixed philosophies).

Still, I understand you're trying to solve the problem with regex. Is that required? Are you allowed to import csv?
https://docs.python.org/3/library/csv.html

If yes, I'd deal with the header and data separately.
If no, I'll continue (or hopefully someone chimes in)

Answer 2

till now I use code below to locate rows with dates
line_ckeck1 = re.match("\"\d",line)
if line_ckeck1:
print(str(cnt), " nameren s data")

but for columns i will try with CSV
Thank you!!!